CASTRIES, Saint Lucia (Reuters) -Caribbean gay rights activists celebrated a landmark court ruling this week striking down colonial-era legislation in the island nation of Saint Lucia that criminalized gay sexual relations and imposed prison terms of up to a decade.

The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court issued the decision on Tuesday in the case brought by LGBTQ rights alliance ECADE on behalf of a gay couple.

The court ruled that sections of the criminal code that outlawed “buggery” and “gross indecency” were unconstitutional.

“Our own courts are now recognizing that these colonial-era laws are incompatible with human dignity,” Dane Lewis, regional program manager at rights group CariFLAGS, said.

Many Caribbean countries still have laws forbidding intimacy between people of the same sex

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